What power structures did Roman Emperors have under them?Did they have deputies,chancellors, secret police etc

Question

I appreciate that every Emperor was different, but if there are any recurring positions or any particularly remarkable power arrangements I'd be very interested in knowing about them.

Answer 1

The rich and powerful people of ancient Rome were the patricians, who governed the city from the Senate ( the Senate was Romes governing body during the republic voted into office once a year by an Assembly of citizens ), and the equites, or men of property. All the social and most political power was in the hands of a few ancient families, such as Cornelii, the Julii ( the family of the Caesers) and the Aemilii. The Senate lost most of its power under the emperors, but the patrician families still led public opinion.

Most patricians had, beside their house at Rome, a family farm in the country and a number of villas in pleasant spots of Latium in central Italy or in the south. Town and contry houses alike were beautifully built and designed for their owner's comfort.

The Romans believed in making their sons fine soilders so after he became a Roman citizen he was enlisted on his first military campaign. On his return from military service the son of a patrician almost always entered into politics, and the sons of equites sometimes did the same. A young man first stood for election as an aedile, or city councillor. The aediles looked after the corn supply and public amusements. The next office was that of the quaestor, or a secretary of the treasury. The next step was to be elected praetor, or judge. After that, if he where lucky, a man might be offerd a province to govern ( in the days of the Empire ) or stand for consulship. Under the republic the consuls were magistrates who had the greatest power in Rome.

At any time a patrician could stand for election as a tribune, or political leader, generally one who championed the rights of the common people against the Senate. A tribuneship was a dangerous post because its holder was often in conflict with powerful nobles, but for an ambitious man it was the quickest way to success.

In Rome a successful patrician spent his days somewhat as follows. He rose at daybreak and spent an hour or two in the atrium, interviewing people who had come to him for help. In the late Republic and in the Empire these people where mostly his freed slaves and their children. The patrician felt it his duty to help out in any way he could and to plea for them in the law courts if necessary.

After a light breakfast the patrician went down to the Forum, acompanied by all the friends and clients he could assemble. The day was spent pleading in the law courts or sitting in the Senate. In the evening he ate the chief meal of the day and invited guests to it. The men reclined around the tables on couches as they ate, but the patricians wife only took her meals with him if he was alone.

Answer 2

Some unbelievably irrelevant answers here.
I'll talk about the Principate - Government structure 27 BC - c. 284 AD.
The idea was , a partnership between the Princeps ("Emperor") and the Senate. Constitutionally, the Princeps had all the former powers of the People delegated to him.
The Princeps had:
the right to overrule the senate and introduce bills there, and the right to decide its composition;
the control of the army;
the control of frontier provinces (inland provinces were still administered by the Senate, but the Princeps had an overrider or Maius Imperium by which he could control these too); and
the control of taxation.
To help him, the Princeps had a secretariat, usually composed of former slaves. It was an extremely demanding job if you wanted to do it properly.
As for a deputy, from time to time a sort of crown prince known as a Caesar was chosen.

Answer 3

The question about who was the first emperor has never found a definitive answer. Under a purely technical point of view there is no clear first emperor, as the title itself was not an official post in the Roman constitutional system—rather, it was an amalgam of separate roles.

Julius Caesar was a Dictator Perpetuus ("life-long dictator"), which was a highly irregular form of dictator, an official position in the Roman republic. According to law, the rule of a dictator would normally never exceed 6 months. The form created by Caesar was therefore quite contrary to the basic principles of the Roman Republic. Nevertheless, officially his authority rested upon this republican title, however irregular it might have been, and therefore he is considered a republican official. At the very least he pretended to be one. Several senators, among them many former enemies who had been "graciously" pardoned by him, grew fearful that he would crown himself and try to establish a monarchy. Accordingly, they conspired to assassinate him, and on the Ides of March, on the 15 March 44 BC, the life-long dictator perished under the blades of his assassins before he could be crowned.

Octavian, his grand-nephew, adopted son and political heir, is widely accepted as the first emperor. He had learned from the mistake of his predecessor and never claimed the widely feared title dictator, disguising his power under republican forms much more carefully. All this was intended to foster the illusion of a restoration of the Republic. He received several titles like Augustus—the honorable one, and Princeps—translated as first citizen of the Roman republic or as first leader of the Roman Senate. The latter had been a title awarded for those who had served the state well; Pompey had held that title.

In addition, Augustus (as he is named thereafter) was granted the right to wear the Civic Crown of laurel and oak. However, it must be noted that officially, none of these titles or the Civic Crown, granted Augustus any additional powers or authority; officially he was simply a highly-honored Roman citizen, holding the consulship. Augustus also became Pontifex Maximus after the death of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 13 BC. He also received several additional and extraordinary powers without claiming too many titles. In the end he only needed the authority itself, not necessarily all the respective titles

Answer 4

Look up Ancient Rome on the internet.It is far more thorough
than any answers you can get on here To learn about power structures under the emporers you must look up the section about the republic.There really was no equivalent to a secret police but
wealthy romans did employ the services of spies.
When America's founding fathers set up the United States they
modeled a lot of it on the old roman republic and frankly the senate and the court system were very powerful institutions

Answer 5

the centurions and their military were like their secret police.
they were sworn to defend the aristocracy against the
common herds of slaves and bums and criminal classes.
power has always been held by physical force.
much like our own society today, where the aristocracy still
controls the world. the obscenely wealthy maintain their
wealth through force of arms. threats and intimidation.
it is known as 'old' money. peasant revolts are rarely successful for long. the aristocracy maniuplated napoleon into a position
of dictatorship and conscripted all the rebels into the napoleonic
wars, punishing the peasantry for the french revolution.
our own american revolution was severely punished. most
of the founding fathers of the u.s.a. died penniless, in great
pain. we exchanged one form of tyranny for another.
then marxism was another form of punishment, the dictatorship
of tyranny of the proletariat. cheap labor was obtained this
way so the rich could get even richer. world-wide communism
was halted by murders. stalin took orders from extremely
wealthy in new york city. read the naked capitalist by cleon
skousen, f.b.i. agent. he also wrote the naked communist.
they are on the 'net'. this is not called 'corruption'. this is
called, 'preserving the wealth'.

Answer 6

yes they did